Quote:
Originally Posted by suffolk112000
... When it comes right down to it, one of the biggest deciding factors was Sony's decision to pay off Best Buy to market the Blue Ray format. ...

Craig

Actually, I've seen a sudden and pretty drastic turnaround towards HD DVD displays and media presentations at 3 area Best Buys the past 10 days. Blu Ray is still there, but no longer the solo front for HD disks...HD DVD installed equipment, demos playing, and signage are all ramped up.

Walmart - they have a subcontracted vendor for their media and displays, and they still don't even understand high def - that's from a close insider.

I just read this:
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Wal-Mart/High-Def_Retailing/Wal-Mart_Offers_New_Blu-ray_Player/Disc_Bundle__/767

You would be surprised how many people spell it 'Blue-ray'!

And in the English language at least, technically the phease 'Blu-ray' can only be pronounced as 'Blur-ray'!

Which is quite fitting really :-P

Long Hiatus...

Where have you been Bourke?

Why pick HD over Blu Ray?
A better question might be "Why buy any High Def player when you know that in the future you may be stuck with equipment that no one supports." High Def is a fantastic leap forward that took a lot of man hours to perfect on both sides (Blu Ray and HD). So why is it that after all these hours of research and development do these companies have to start acting like a little kid on the playground who tries to stir up trouble among everyone else.

Let's get this format immaturity behind us and get on with what we all got into home theater for, to relax and enjoy movies and other programing in High Definition.

I bought an HD-DVD player because they cost $250 with 5 pretty decent discs, the technology is more robustly implemented right now than Blu-Ray's, the HD-D2 upconverts beautifully and I hated my Momitsu V880-N and would have taken just about any excuse to throw it off of my fire escape.

I just read this:
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Wal-Mart/High-Def_Retailing/Wal-Mart_Offers_New_Blu-ray_Player/Disc_Bundle__/767
Old news. In the 19 area stores, there are only 6 players in stock, and about 225 disks altogether - that's less than 1 player for every 3 stores and 11 disks per store - whoopee.... :rolleyes:

On the other hand....I found a stack of 6 players at one store alone, and about 40 disks. You can only sell what you have in stock. :cool:

More important...as I said before...the 3rd party merchandiser who handles all their media stock, including HD DVD and Blu Ray, has no plans for any real surges or changes to inventory the next month, and quite frankly no clue about what this media is all about. That runs all the way up to the 7 state regional manager level. No disrespect, but their info comes from the top.

That said, my same inside source (family member) tells me a newer low cost HD DVD player is, in fact, in the plans soon for all their stores. When that comes, they also plan to ramp up their HD DVD disk inventories.

See you in the rear view mirror Blu Ray.... :D

Old news. In the 19 area stores, there are only 6 players in stock, and about 225 disks altogether - that's less than 1 player for every 3 stores and 11 disks per store - whoopee.... :rolleyes:

On the other hand....I found a stack of 6 players at one store alone, and about 40 disks. You can only sell what you have in stock. :cool:

More important...as I said before...the 3rd party merchandiser who handles all their media stock, including HD DVD and Blu Ray, has no plans for any real surges or changes to inventory the next month, and quite frankly no clue about what this media is all about. That runs all the way up to the 7 state regional manager level. No disrespect, but their info comes from the top.

That said, my same inside source (family member) tells me a newer low cost HD DVD player is, in fact, in the plans soon for all their stores. When that comes, they also plan to ramp up their HD DVD disk inventories.

See you in the rear view mirror Blu Ray.... :D

That would be nice. Hope your source is correct.

That would be nice. Hope your source is correct.
Actually...they're just confirming what I've read 4-5 other places.

Since my source has direct access to advanced promotional materials, I just found it interesting that it was actually documented someplace.

Anyway...since I had to go into 3 stores for an unrelated reason yesterday, I also wanted to report that they still have only 3 Blu Ray players in stock between the 3 stores and also only a nominal # of disks (they only got 1 box of new BD disks this past week between the 3 stores combined.

HD DVD disk sales, on the other hand, are doing better than BD and running at a steady clip. They sold 9 HD DVD players between the 3 stores this past week.

These numbers mean little on a grand scale, but are still interesting just to see things at a local level.

I did witness a humorous little "episode" yesterday at one of my 2 nearby Blockbuster stores....there were 3 people who waited in line in front of me, and then went to the counter where the store manager was manning that area. Almost in unison, they said, "We want to close our Blockbuster account in protest because Blockbuster is only supporting Blu Ray". The expression on the face of the manager was a Kodak moment...jaw dropped and all. The 3 people left quietly after turning in their cut up cards, and the manager seemed to then write down something before helping the next customer. When my turn came up at the counter, I commented "that was interesting about those 3 people"...his response..."they're not the first ones to cancel over Blu Ray, but it's the first time more than one came in at a time together". I told him I agreed with the 3, and was thinking of canceling myself. He said "No please don't...I'm writing a letter this weekend to corporate to let them know this is happening more and more, and they need to rethink all that".

Interesting indeed.

Actually...they're just confirming what I've read 4-5 other places.

Since my source has direct access to advanced promotional materials, I just found it interesting that it was actually documented someplace.

Anyway...since I had to go into 3 stores for an unrelated reason yesterday, I also wanted to report that they still have only 3 Blu Ray players in stock between the 3 stores and also only a nominal # of disks (they only got 1 box of new BD disks this past week between the 3 stores combined.

HD DVD disk sales, on the other hand, are doing better than BD and running at a steady clip. They sold 9 HD DVD players between the 3 stores this past week.

These numbers mean little on a grand scale, but are still interesting just to see things at a local level.

I did witness a humorous little "episode" yesterday at one of my 2 nearby Blockbuster stores....there were 3 people who waited in line in front of me, and then went to the counter where the store manager was manning that area. Almost in unison, they said, "We want to close our Blockbuster account in protest because Blockbuster is only supporting Blu Ray". The expression on the face of the manager was a Kodak moment...jaw dropped and all. The 3 people left quietly after turning in their cut up cards, and the manager seemed to then write down something before helping the next customer. When my turn came up at the counter, I commented "that was interesting about those 3 people"...his response..."they're not the first ones to cancel over Blu Ray, but it's the first time more than one came in at a time together". I told him I agreed with the 3, and was thinking of canceling myself. He said "No please don't...I'm writing a letter this weekend to corporate to let them know this is happening more and more, and they need to rethink all that".

Interesting indeed.

Interesting.

By the way, still love your sig!

Boycotting Sony is only one step. But they're never going to listen anyway. In my original post I suggested boycotting Fox, Disney, Blockbuster, and anyone else who supports Blu-Ray, but not HD-DVD. I think they are the ones we should try to send a message to.

So far the message seems to have gone unheard... :mad:

why choose hd-dvd? because only toshiba is nice enough to send their customers post-cards only a couple of months after purchase.

:(

We dont know who will win unitl the European investigation has concluded because if Disney and other studios are force to support both formats then its a whole new ballgame

Why pick HD DVD? Less DRM, better interactivity specs and player standards. Same quality for less money.

Same quality for less money? Doesn't seem that way to me.

The Panasonic plays blu-ray and dvd-audio and works perfectly with my outboard DA unit. Has 7.1 analog outputs. You can also turn it off in the middle of a blu-ray disk and continue where you left off when you turn the player back on. Made in Japan.

The Toshiba top-of-the-line only has 5.1 analog outputs and does not play dvd-audio and is unfriendly with my outboard DA unit*. Made in China.

I'd say that currently HD DVD is the rip-off. The players are currently priced the same.

* DA unit determination based on the XA1 that I have. What's meant by unfriendly is that it drops the digital signal when a disk is ejected or put in the player. This causes the DA unit to output a pop. Not good for speakers if you forget to press the mute button at these times.